If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands. I lost a Facebook friend today, clap my hands. Maybe two but we’ll have to wait and see. This may seem strange to you. Why would someone be happy to lose a friend? It really isn’t a very long story.

I had decided to resume my blogging with a blog of this title that was going to suggest we look for the positives in situations. I was going to suggest that we can decide to be happy by focusing on things that bring us joy or are joyful to others. As I sat down to write I decided to check the time vacuum that is Facebook. I saw all, I mean all, of my friends who are women posting “Me Too.” I was saddened and then angered as I realized the width and breadth of this issue. Almost everyone of my friends was responding whether they had been harassed or assaulted unacceptable. Come n guys we can do better. We can raise sons that are respectful of all people. We can confront other men when they begin to cross lines or encroach on boundaries. Women aren’t, or shouldn’t be, in this alone. I lost a Facebook friend clap my hands.

I began responding to my friends and stated that I put a sad emoticon but was truly angered that they had endured situations that no one should have to endure. I stand by them and with them and pledge to do my part. My part is to raise my son to be respectful and to confront harassment and offer protection and support to women in those situations. I’m not saying women cannot care for themselves but sexual assault and harassment is about power which makes it akin to bullying. Bullies tend to back away when bystanders show support and solidarity. While I was responding my opportunity to act came up. Would I take action or simply let my words offer worthless hope?

A Facebook friend began ridiculing the “Me Too” idea. I am not going to discuss his viewpoints but I will say they were more than insensitive. I new that I couldn’t simply sit by. Giving him the benefit of the doubt that maybe he was simply unaware I sent him a pm. He responded angrily so I put a comment on his comments. He deleted my comment, unfriended me, and blocked me. I lost a Facebook friend today and I’d do it again in a heartbeat! Clap my hands!

Again we need to all come together to stop the mistreatment of others. So let’s band together men and make the world a better place for women by pledging to not harass, exploit, or assault women (or anyone else). Let us also hold each other accountable to this pledge.

The summer seems to have just started and the stores are already having back to school sales. I hope everyone is getting some good rest, fun, and relaxation this summer! Westview Church has been busy preparing for the Music Machine as our VBS next week. This extravaganza is being headed up by wonderful volunteers. More volunteers are always appreciated see Jill Turpin or Sarah Timmons if interested.

Financial Peace University is also coming up. It will begin August 6th. This class is for everyone that has ever had to deal with their finances. Learn to control of your finances so that your finances don’t control you. Our Bible study is also starting that week on August 9th.

The study, “What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian?” is based on Martin Thielen’s book. It will meet twice a week. Once on Wednesday morning at First District Coffee at 9 am and again at the church that evening at 6:30 following the Wonderful Westview Wednesday meal and time of fellowship.

I ask each of you to commit to participating in as many church and fellowship events as possible. We are working on becoming Christ’s disciples so that we can share the love of God with our neighbors more fully and completely than ever before. One person may not make a difference in the life of the world but one person can make a world of difference in the life of a neighbor.

Along that same line I ask that you prayerfully consider serving on committees. It takes us all working together to make Westview UMC function properly. We are an active church and need all of our voices to unite in call, witness, and love to our community and our church. I ask that you consider leadership as a way to help develop discipleship not only in your own faith walk but in the walks of others

A week or so ago I awoke feeling down. I was tired, a bit sore, and feeling sorry for myself. I turned on the television to watch some news and went from feeling sorry for myself to anger at the cruelty of the world. Two shootings that day made me realize the insignificant magnitude of my problems. It doesn’t mean my problems aren’t real but felling a bit down is dramatically different than the suffering of people being denied their rights, being shot at, or being persecuted. I realized that my perspective had become skewed simply because I was tired. I was neglecting to see all that God had (and is) provided for me.

I have been challenging my church to engage in a Summer of Transformation. We need to be intentional in our actions as Christians. We must seek out ways to grow spiritually so that we can be the best people we can be. Some of these growth opportunities are done in groups such as Bible studies, working in the Samaritan Garden, and engaging in evangelism. Evangelism may sound like something T.V. preachers do or the identity of a certain group of Christians but it is much simpler. Evangelism simply means spreading the God News of Jesus Christ. We spread the Good News that Jesus came to and for us mostly by the way we live. If we are going to identify as Christians it is imperative that we behave as Christians as best we can.

Another facet of intentionality in regards to our Christian walk is to take the time to pray. When we pray we should spend time listening and looking for the answers that God is providing. I believe that God answers our prayers, all of our prayers, without exception. When we do not feel that God is answering our prayers we are either not paying attention or the answer is no. We tend to forget that no is a perfectly reasonable and appropriate response for many of our concerns. God is the perfect parent and all parents need to say no probably more often than I do…

So we need to pay attention to what God is doing in our lives. I was neglecting to do that and began to feel down. I was missing the blessings that God pours into our lives. These blessings and even miracles are not necessarily huge as a matter of fact they are most often small and subtle. I was driving to a meeting when I started counting some of my blessings. I was driving which is an activity that I really enjoy. I was safe due to good roads and vigilant law enforcement. I was on my way to spend time with good friends where I knew laughter and support would follow. These blessings are obvious and easy to see but God didn’t leave it there. I noticed the clouds that early morning. The clouds were subtle combination of pinks and purples building to white peaks. This gift from God, the beauty in those clouds, is an example of the small blessings and miracles that we miss. We’ve become so accustomed to them that we don’t notice or we take them for granted.

We need to pay attention. I listed several blessings that God provides to us but the list is endless if we take the time to notice. Think of the people that God has placed in our lives. Some of those people perform tasks for us, make us laugh, or otherwise enrich us. Sharing the blessings we have been given with others is the best response that I can think of to thank God. We can and should be the blessings in other people’s lives.

It is amazing to me that whenever I get caught up in my own issues and problems and begin feeling sorry for myself something happens that makes me realize the smallness of my issues. I woke up Wednesday morning feeling tired having just finished Annual Conference in Brentwood. While the conference was great and I got to see friends old and new it was still three full days of conferencing. I then woke up and realized I still had all of the responsibilities of planning worship and facing issues of the church. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed then I turned on the news; another shooting.

Our society has taking a sharp turn over the last twenty or so years. There was a time that people could settle their differences through compromise or even agreeing to disagree yet remaining cordial. Over the last twenty years that has changed dramatically. The vitriol and rhetoric coming out of elected officials, televisions, radios, and seemingly every aspect of our society is slowly turning to violence. Why are we surprised that people begin to use violence when society has been demonizing groups of people. Our words have created a climate of us versus them not only in our leadership but in our culture. We have gone astray! Whether we were led astray or charged forth in the guise of righteousness we have gone forth from the straight and narrow that God wishes us to follow.

I truly hope that this situation does not get politicized. People will surely throw stones back and forth, name calling, demanding gun control, or better mental health. However at the core of the problem is our behavior, our dislike, and our having gone astray. It is time that everyone did something to curb the plague of vitriol and violence facing us. Let us get back on the path and behaviors in which God wants us to engage.

We are having a Summer of Transformation at Westview UMC. We are looking at ways to address our own sins, having Financial Peace classes, and doing a book study on Martin Thielin’s book What’s the Least I Need to Believe to be a Christian? The Financial Peace classes will begin in August and the book study will begin the second week of July.

Let us take this opportunity to investigate our lives to ensure we are following the path that God desires for us. Let us delve into deeper relationship with our Savior so that we can help others see Christ (at least glimpses) through our actions.

I have been talking a lot about smokescreens of late. Some my say I’m talking too much about smokescreens and not paying enough attention to the major issues facing society. I believe that most if not all of these major issues are smokescreens. Remember a smokescreen is anything that keeps us from doing what God has asked us to do. That is love God and our neighbor and to do that we must repent of our sins and strive to be in deeper and deeper relationship with God. I am not saying that the issues facing society are not important nor am I discounting the people in the various groups or their struggles. I’m claiming that if we got rid of our smokescreens and focused on doing what God has asked the people in the various groups wouldn’t have to struggle for the love God is pouring out would shine upon them and the need for the struggle would be solved.

We use smokescreens quickly and we think effectively. The smoke we use spans more and goes deeper than the major issues facing society. We use them in our local churches and even in our daily lives. If we are up in arms against someone else’s issues than maybe people won’t se our sins and issues. The smoke divides and separates us into us who are good, righteous, and worthy and them who are bad, evil, and unworthy. Smokescreens make us judge both them as unworthy and us as worthy yet we are told not to judge. I’ll save judging for a different blog post. The smokescreen is used to divide us into groups. Us that are worthy versus them who are not. That is a false statement. God’s grace is poured out upon us precisely because we are not worthy! It’s grace and mercy. The smokescreens blind us to this truth that negates the reasoning behind our division.

The smoke we create makes us think that if we could only rid ourselves of them, the sinful and unworthy, all would be right with the world. Thus the division created leads to schism. Bishop Bill McAlilly stated at our Annual Conference that schism is the lowest fruit on the theological tree. Schism destroys and rips apart. Schism in the face of smokescreens is ineffective. Smokescreens don’t work. You see we divide into the two groups of us the worthy and them the unworthy and we work to make them go away. We celebrate briefly as they leave only to find we are faced with the problem of our own sin. Since we are unwilling to look at ourselves as flawed we create another smokescreen because we need the them who are unworthy to distract us from the fact we are not following God as best we can, loving God and everyone who God loves the best we can. Once the smokescreen is back in place we again work to make them go away and the process repeats. It will continue to repeat as long as we refuse to acknowledge our own sins and flaws. For it is only when we work on our own stuff that we no longer need a smokescreen and are freed to fully follow and trust in God and God’s love!

In a conversation with a colleague I was struck by how passionately he demonized certain people. I realized in that moment that a smokescreen had been created and he needed to ask himself a question. What makes whatever “they” are doing worse than what “we” are doing? The answer to that question is found in James 2:10, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.” No sin or flaw is greater than another. We really need to love the sinner and hate our own sin for only in dealing with our own sins and flaws can we be truly free to do the work God has for us to do!

In a previous blog post I claimed that most of the social justice issues facing our country are smokescreens. I want to revisit that claim a bit. I do not want to be misunderstood. The fact that the issues are smokescreens does not diminish the importance of those issues. Racism, same sex relationships, sexism, and many other isms are real issues. These issues and the decisions that are made around them have real life consequences for people who identify with those groups. I am not trying to minimize their suffering or goals or access to justice. What I am saying is that while these issues are real they are also smokescreens. They keep us focused away from what we should be doing. The interesting thing is that we all have smokescreens just like we all have sin in our lives.

Anything can be a smokescreen. We use smokescreens to our advantage. We create a smokescreen to distract from our own sins, shortcomings, and transgressions and focus attention on what others are doing, which we deem as wrong, sinful, or horrible whether or not that is true. We spin it in such a way that people don’t seem to notice what we are doing. On a side note I find it fascinating that when the smoke clears we are often involved in the some behaviors at which we were pointing fingers. Why do we find it so difficult to face our own shortcomings without looking for a distraction?

I wonder if we try to distract or create smoke so that we are not forced to change. When we discover that we are doing something wrong are we not then obligated to change the behavior? Good mental health would dictate that we need to rid ourselves of maladaptive behaviors or frankly sin. Of course this is easy to say but we are comfortable with our sin. It has become part of us and we are used to them. Change on the other hand is uncomfortable. We don’t know where change will lead us but it will be toward the unknown, new, and unfamiliar. Ridding ourselves of sin is scary! So instead we distract with smoke.

I challenge all of you (and me) to investigate when we start deflecting attention onto someone’s shortcomings. Look into why we begin creating smoke. What are we trying to hide, even from ourselves? What behavior causes us embarrassment? What is it at that moment that we find shameful? Why focus on others’ behavior? We cannot change what others do or do not do. We can only change our own behavior. So when we start creating smoke we need to ask ourselves what we are avoiding or hiding from view. Once we understand and see our own shortcomings we can begin to change those behaviors so that we can be more Christ like in our actions. As we work through our sin, with the help of others and Jesus, we begin to be more and more authentic witnesses to Christ.

I am excited! This is an incredible time to be a Christian. The work is rewarding, gratifying, and plentiful. The work is so plentiful that one person cannot possibly even make a dent in the needs around them. The work is so plentiful that one person would be tempted to quit being overwhelmed by the struggle. The great thing is that the workers are not alone, being surrounded by God. One would think that the workload would diminish as time went on but like God’s other gifts the workload seems to grow as we work. Are we doing something wrong? Did we not read the will of God correctly? Is something amiss in the way we behave as Christians? Probably.

We tend to allow ourselves comfort. We get comfortable and forget that we are a called people. We forget that we are living in exile. We are simply sojourners here on earth. We wrongly think that becoming Christians and being baptized is the end. Becoming a Christian, becoming aware of the salvation that awaits us, being baptized is only the beginning! We are called to live for Jesus Christ. We are not called to a life of comfort, for that is not life abundant. Life abundant includes others, others that have not yet heard the Good News! So what are we to do? As a church we are called to lead people to Christ but how can we lead if we don’t know where we are going? We must leave our comfort zones, try new things, and mature as Christians.

This summer I challenge each of you to try something new. Add a spiritual discipline into your faith walk, participate more in church activities/leadership, and resetting your focus on how Christ desires for us to live. To that end Westview is having a Summer of Transformation! We will be offering financial classes, a new version of Vacation Bible School, and a Bible Study based on the book “What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian?” by Martin Thielen. As we deepen our relationship with God we will gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the gifts that are showered out upon us. I hope that you can attend but if for some reason you cannot attend, like you live far away and are reading this on my blog, please examine your relationship with God. Read, study, and immerse yourself in God’s love for you. The benefits of growing in our faith far outweigh the pains of change and growth.

I pray that each of you find the deepest of relationships with God and all of the people God came for and to. This is this pastor’s opinion, what’s yours?